North East
Victoria turned on tropical weather for the Victorian Sprint MTBO titles and
the Chiltern MTB Caper. Hot, steamy conditions were prevalent on each day and
made the longer Sunday event fairly taxing.
The Sprint titles
were in and around the streets, parks and drainage lines of the town, with the
longer courses featuring some patches of bush. All courses involved routes
across patches of yellow. Unusually, the M14 class had the largest field, with
8 competitors. Local tri-athlete coach Fab Andreoni organized for his junior
squad to participate, and together with several of their parents, they
experienced MTBO for the first time. Hopefully some of them will be back in the
future for more.
Several riders
made navigation or punching errors late in their rides, which proved costly.
Suzanne OÕCallaghan had an argument with a small bridge and came off second
best, requiring stitches to her wounds. The more experienced riders made the
least errors and came away with the trophies, which were presented at a
pleasant social evening on Saturday night. Thanks to Leigh Privett for lots of
work, including map preparation, track making and challenging route planning.
Most of the riders
doubled up for the MTB caper on Sunday morning. This event had a point of
difference in that the controls were up to 200m off track and you had to run
from the track to the control and back to your bike. (I understand some had
trouble finding their way back to their bikes!). Route choice was complicated
by having the marks equi-distant from at least 2 tracks, providing several
ÔattackÕ points.
Pre planning of
your route was essential, and obviously many competitors did not have a strong
grasp on their timing, as 40% of the field was back late. Locals Alastair
Buchan and Fab Andreoni featured prominently in the results, while Kate Gavens
mixed it with best of the men.
Thank you to all
the competitors who traveled north for the weekend. Albury Wodonga will be
hosting the Australian MTBO champs in 2011, so you have had a taste of what we
can offer.